When you get your picture on the cover of the Rollin’ Stone

Dominic Preziosi January 29, 2014 - 1:26pm

Someone may yet do a more substantial post on Mark Binelli’s Pope Francis cover story in Rolling Stone[1], but for the moment I thought I’d pull out quotes from three of the people interviewed. Context-free, maybe, but how much is needed?

Thomas Reese: “The people Francis is going to have the most trouble with are the ideologues. They’re basically like the Tea Party. They’ve made up their minds. They don’t get it. And unless they go through some major conversion, they ain’t gonna get it.”

Cornell West: “Pope Francis is a gift from heaven, a prophetic voice willing to be a critic of capitalism and imperialism. I don’t want to fetishize the pope. He heads a deeply patriarchal and homophobic organization that I’m critical of. But I love who he is, in terms of what he says, and the impact of his words on progressive forces around the world.”

Unnamed street vendor outside St. Peter’s, when asked if the increased crowds under Francis have been good for business, answers in “perfect, New York-inflected English, ‘Naw, this guy, all he does is talk about the poor, and so he’s bringing in these poorer tourists from places like Argentina. They ain’t got no money, these people! When Ratzinger was pope, Germans would pull up on a bus. They’re organized, they spend! Now, everyone wants a discount.’”